CHARACTERIZATION OF A NEURONAL INTERLEUKIN-1 RECEPTOR AND THE CORRESPONDING MESSENGER-RNA IN THE MOUSE ANTERIOR-PITUITARY CELL-LINE ATT-20

Interleukin-1 (IL-1) mediates numerous responses on the mouse anterior pituitary cell line AtT-20. We have studied the ligand binding properties of the IL-1 receptors (IL-1R) of the AtT-20 cells and found that they possess 1.5 x 10(3) receptors/cell with a K(d) of 0.15 nM for [I-125]IL-1-alpha. Using oligonucleotide primers, which define a 236 bp region of the cDNA coding for the cytosolic part of the mouse T-cell IL-1R, and cDNA prepared from AtT-20 cells, we obtained by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) a DNA fragment which was shown to possess an identical sequence to that of the corresponding region of the mouse T-cell IL-1R. Thus the AtT-20 pituitary cell line IL-1 receptor appears to be similar to those found on mouse T-cells and fibroblasts.